From Dr. Becky.
AD | Go to https://ground.news/drbecky to stay fully informed with the latest Space and Science news. Save 40% off the Vantage plan through my link for unlimited access | Hello and welcome to this episode of Night Sky News for December 2025 with me astrophysicist Dr Becky Smethurst. This is the show where we chat about what you should look out for in the night sky in the next month, and what’s been happening in space news in the past month. In this episode we’re chatting about the deluge of observations released by NASA of comet 3i ATLAS after the government shutdown, the most distant supernova and the most distant spiral galaxy ever detected by JWST, and the largest roaring structure ever found in the universe.
Jain & Wadadekar (2025)- https://arxiv.org/pdf/2412.04834
Levan et al. (2025) – https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.18784
Tudorache et al. (2025) – https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.13053
00:00 Introduction
00:54 Comet 3I ATLAS closest approach to Earth
01:55 ISS on Christmas Day
03:00 Quadrantids Meteor shower early January
04:22 Spot Saturn & Jupiter in the night sky
05:22 Comet 3I ATLAS observed by NASA fleet
09:23 Comet 3I ATLAS orbit more accurately determined
11:41 Most distant supernova and spiral galaxy found
15:15 Largest rotating structure in the Universe
19:29 An update from me
Video filmed on a Sony ⍺7 IV
Video edited by Martino Gasparrini: https://www.fiverr.com/mgs_editing
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👩🏽💻 I’m Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford (Christ Church). I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don’t know. If you’ve ever wondered about something in space and couldn’t find an answer online – you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars.
